


remember it

by mcmeekin



Series: bruises [1]
Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Dino Thunder
Genre: Gen, friendship post high school oh-my-god-my-dino-kids-fell-out-of-touch fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-04
Updated: 2015-04-04
Packaged: 2018-03-21 06:30:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3681543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcmeekin/pseuds/mcmeekin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Silence speaks louder than words.</p><p>(Ethan has to hear about Kira moving to New York from someone else.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	remember it

**Author's Note:**

> I don't actually know where this came from, but it's been sitting in my drafts for a millennium so I need to sort of just put it out there in the world and go, "This exists."  
> So.  
> This exists.  
> All mistakes are my own.

They fall out of touch.

The silence is what gets to her, the silence that develops between them all. The years and miles of horrible crushing silence. Someone had once told her, jokingly, that the friends you make in high school are just for survival purposes. She had laughed then because they hadn't known how right they were. She doesn't laugh now.

She isn't sure who dropped out of touch first. Looking back, she thinks it must have been Conner. He always was unreliable on the ‘returning phone calls’ end of things. And his schedule was the most hectic. Yes, it must have been Conner; she called him at a bad time, and he hurriedly said he’d get back to her and then never did. That must have been the way it happened. Because, even after all this time, she still geared things off of Conner. She must’ve made promises to herself, must’ve thought that she’d meet up with Trent when Conner called, that she’d email Dr. O back after Conner called, she’d call Hayley if only Conner would call back. She’d listen to Ethan’s voice mail when Conner called.

She remembers the voice mail, remembers that she never listened to it. She was always just too busy. But it sat there on her phone, reminding her that she hadn't spoken to her best friends in a month, two months, three.

Reminding her that she hadn't even bothered to call and tell them that she was moving to New York.

She was overwhelmed by how amazing New York was. How loud and large and perfect it was. She could get swallowed in it. She could forget everything and everyone in it. And she almost does.

The reunion pulls her back to reality. It’s a weird quirk of their high school, the one year reunion. It’s mostly a strange motivation for people to try hard in their first year of college so they have something to brag about at the reunion (it works, surprisingly). For her, it’s almost an intervention.

It is too easy to slip back into normalcy at the reunion. Too easy to remember how simple it is to be around them, how she doesn't have to work so hard. Too easy to remember what it’s like to have their backs. Too easy to feel the weight of the morpher ghosting across her wrist.

The reunion is good for her. She tries harder after that. She calls Conner back when she thinks he forgets. She gets lunch with Hayley when she comes to visit New York. She emails Dr. O consistently. She texts Trent regularly. But she never listens to the voice mail. It’s still a reminder for her.

Because sometimes she forgets. Forgets that she’s killed monsters larger than that scary guy in the bar. Forgets that she’s flown a _fucking pterodactyl_ so there should be no reason that she can’t navigate midtown traffic, honestly. Forgets that she faced down Mesogog and _sassed_ him so why the hell should that agent make her lose her ability to speak? Forgets how brave and quick and powerful she is. But Ethan’s unplayed voice mail reminds her.

It also reminds her that she has support. After every ‘no’ she receives, after every studio who’s ‘yes’ comes with conditions she’s not willing to accept, after every day, she can go home and look at the voice mail and remember that they’re still standing at her back, even if they’re not _physically_ there.

It starts getting discouraging though, living in New York. She still hasn't landed anything. Nothing is happening for her. She starts almost going through the motions of keeping up her friendships. She stops telling them about her days and starts asking about theirs instead.

It gets to be too much one day. She’s just tired and stressed and has been picking up too many shifts at work, and it all just gets to be too much. She comes home almost in a daze, hitting play on her answering machine almost automatically. There’s a message from someone that she doesn't care about, and, after that’s over, Ethan’s message starts playing automatically. She can tell that he called early in the morning, probably after an all-nighter. He’s talking about something that has to do with Mars, and he’s talking about it very quickly and excitedly.

She starts laughing, right there in her tiny kitchen. Just, laughing. It’s so _Ethan_ that she can’t handle it.

Very quickly her laughter turns to crying. Like, weird silent crying. She grabs the phone, cutting Ethan off mid-rant and slides down the wall to the ground. She’s dialing his number before she even really realizes what she’s doing. It’s too late in the night where he is for there to be any possibility of him picking up.

But he does. His voice sounds muffled and vaguely disgruntled like she woke him up. “Hello?”

She doesn't say anything, unsure of why she even called.

“Hello?” he repeats, sounding slightly more awake.

“Hey,” she manages finally. “It’s Kira.”

“Kira?” Ethan asks, confused. “What’s up?”

She struggles with coming up with anything to say. “I… I listened to your voice mail.”

“My voice mail?”

“Yeah, from like a year ago. It’s about Mars or something.” She laughs shakily.

“I don’t remember that,” he says. “Kira, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” she says automatically. “I just…had a rough day. Wanted to hear a friendly voice, I guess.”

“Oh,” he says.

“Sorry for waking you up,” she offers weakly.

“No, no it’s fine,” he says hurriedly. “I’m just not sure what I can do for you since I’m so far away.”

She blows out a breath slowly. “Talk to me? About anything. Anything at all.”

“Uh, anything?”

She nods to herself. “Anything.”

“Well…there’s a new video game coming out next Tuesday; it’s a sequel, and they’re doing this new thing with the graphics…” The rest sort of just washes over her, and she ends up falling asleep on her kitchen floor, listening to Ethan babble.

Because it’s always the silence that gets her.


End file.
